"Ninjutsu should be learned systematically," Kushina said as she scratched her head.
After thinking for a while, she finally came up with the next Jutsu to teach Hagoromo.
"So for the next one… let's go with the upgraded version of the Shadow Clone Jutsu—Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu."
"Although it's an A-rank Ninjutsu, it's basically just an enhanced version of Shadow Clone. The training difficulty shouldn't be too high."
Hagoromo quietly glanced at Kushina.
The training difficulty of Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu might not be high, but it was still a Forbidden Jutsu that consumed enormous amounts of Chakra.
Besides, with his current physique, the normal Shadow Clone Jutsu was already more than enough.
His combat style didn't really require using Multi Shadow Clones in large numbers.
Still, since Kushina wanted to teach it, he would learn it properly.
As long as he controlled the Chakra carefully, the risks could be avoided.
Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu required distributing a large amount of Chakra all at once. If the user failed to control it properly, it could easily injure the caster.
However, Hagoromo didn't think that would be a problem for him.
Still, he asked one question.
"Um… Sensei, Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu is technically a Forbidden Jutsu, right?"
"Is it really okay to teach it to me?"
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu is indeed a Forbidden Jutsu," Kushina replied casually.
"But if I teach it to you, do you think the Third Hokage would object?"
Hagoromo really wanted to say:
Sensei, you misunderstood me.
I'm not worried about whether the Hokage allows it.
I'm worried whether this Jutsu might accidentally kill me.
Clearly, the two of them were worried about completely different things.
Fortunately, Kushina continued explaining.
"Although it's a Forbidden Jutsu, the restriction mainly applies to Shinobi below the Jonin level."
"For a Jonin-level Shinobi, it's not that big of a deal."
"From what I can sense, your Chakra reserves are… well, acceptable."
"So it should be fine."
She paused.
"...Probably."
Hagoromo blinked.
Wait.
What did she mean by probably?
Did that mean there was still a risk?
——————————————————
The difference between Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu and the regular Shadow Clone Jutsu lay in the amount of Chakra flowing through the Chakra pathways.
If creating a single Shadow Clone required a certain amount of Chakra, then creating three clones at the same time meant that amount had to flow through the pathways three times simultaneously during the hand seal.
That was easy enough to understand.
If the number of clones remained in the single digits, the technique wasn't particularly difficult or dangerous.
But if someone tried to create more than ten clones, the difficulty increased dramatically.
And if someone attempted to create hundreds or even thousands of clones…
Only monsters like the Uzumaki clan or the Senju clan could accomplish something like that.
Hagoromo had no illusions about reaching that level.
His Chakra reserves were good compared to ordinary Shinobi.
But compared to someone from the Uzumaki clan…
He would only end up hurting himself.
"Watch carefully," Kushina said as she demonstrated the Jutsu again.
Hagoromo understood the importance of moderation.
While practicing Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, he made sure never to create more than five clones at a time.
With that limitation in place, he successfully grasped the technique.
"Very good."
Kushina patted his shoulder.
"You're handling it calmly."
"In that case, I'll teach you one more Jutsu today."
"The last one."
"It's still part of the clone-type Jutsu."
"The name is Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Hagoromo couldn't help but feel suspicious.
Wasn't this Jutsu basically the Third Hokage's specialty?
Was it really okay to teach it so casually?
Technically speaking, it wasn't.
But that only applied to ordinary Shinobi.
For Kushina Uzumaki, it wasn't a problem at all.
Actually, Kushina was feeling a little uneasy.
Not because she was worried about teaching the Third Hokage's signature Jutsu.
She was worried about Hagoromo's learning speed.
If she kept teaching without restraint, Hagoromo might soon learn every Jutsu she knew.
And when that happened—
She would have nothing left to teach.
That would be extremely embarrassing.
Having a student like this wasn't just something to be proud of.
At the moment, Kushina felt it was almost a tragedy.
But then she remembered how much Minato had praised Kakashi.
Hmph.
Clenching her teeth, she decided she had to keep teaching Hagoromo.
Actually, Hagoromo was already very satisfied.
Aside from Kushina, what other teacher would teach their student three high-level Jutsu every single day?
Of course, with his current Chakra reserves, he still couldn't freely use many high-level Jutsu in real combat.
But Hagoromo's curiosity made it impossible for him to stop pursuing stronger techniques.
The more advanced a Jutsu was, the more mysterious it seemed.
And the more mysterious it was—
The more it attracted him.
——————————————————
And so Kushina continued training Hagoromo while also carrying out her own work.
Occasionally, because of the Hokage's requests and constant persuasion, she would drag Hagoromo along on low-level missions.
Catching cats.
Chasing stray dogs.
That sort of thing.
Time passed quickly.
Before they realized it, three months had passed since Hagoromo graduated from the Ninja Academy.
His classmates had long since followed their team leaders to the battlefield.
Hagoromo even suspected that many of them had already died in the war.
Yet he himself had never even stepped outside the gates of Konoha.
From this perspective, without realizing it, he had perfectly fulfilled the role Konoha had given him.
——————————————————
"Huh?"
"Sensei, you seem unusually happy today."
Because her recent research on Ninjutsu development hadn't been going very smoothly, Kushina had been irritable for several days.
But today her mood had suddenly improved.
It was rather strange.
After three months together, Hagoromo had already become quite familiar with Kushina's personality.
"Could it be that there's been new progress in the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Jutsu research?"
That's right.
After three months, Hagoromo had gone from being a complete novice to becoming a professional assistant helping Kushina develop an S-rank Forbidden Jutsu.
Kushina handled the sealing design.
Hagoromo was responsible for the calculations and theoretical modeling.
The two of them worked surprisingly well together.
The Reverse Four Symbols Sealing Jutsu could be considered an extreme variation of the Four Symbols Sealing Jutsu.
It was an S-rank research assignment issued by Konoha's sealing research department.
Originally, the technique had been designed as a suicide attack.
When a Shinobi was about to die, they could activate the Jutsu and seal both themselves and nearby enemies together.
However, Hagoromo proposed a different idea.
He believed that this design severely limited the technique's usefulness.
If the sealing could be applied to a scroll instead of a human body, the technique could become an extremely powerful offensive sealing weapon.
Kushina found her student's idea very interesting.
Besides, she felt the original mission requirements were far below her own skill level.
So she decided to modify the Jutsu according to Hagoromo's proposal.
However, once they actually began working on it, the true difficulty of the technique became clear.
And so Hagoromo frequently found himself dealing with a completely frustrated Kushina.